Berry Summer Adventure Conclusion

Well our adventure has finally come to a close. We did hike into the Grand Canyon, but instead of the 9.5 miles we thought we were going to hike, we only made it 4.5 before stopping. It was actually a relief to hike down into the canyon because there were so many people on the rim. And so many foreign people! As we talked to people as we were hiking with 20-50 pound backpacks on our backs, they said that the temperature all the way at the bottom was 118 that day. There was no way we were going to get any sleep in that weather, so we opted to stay at Indian Gardens, the half way point between the top and the Colorado River Gorge. It was much more of a strenuous hike than we thought and we were exhausted. Turns out, Shawn drank too much water before the hike, and felt really bad on the way down. We barely slept that night because even though we had our pads and sleeping bags and lugged them all the way down there, we didn't have pillows, and we were on an incline. So you can imagine the headaches we had in the morning. Especially when the huge ravens were cawing outside our tent. When we woke up (I had woken up earlier and saw the sun rise on the canyon wall) we thought it was later, but it was actually 5:45 a.m. in the morning. (The sun rises in Arizona at 5 a.m.)Enough time for us to hurry and pack up and get up the trail! We thought we might stay that day and hike down to the river and then hike out that night, but we were both tired and ready to get up the trail to our car, and on the road to a hotel, shower and real bed! The trail down was bad on our knees, but the trail up was brutal... especially the last 1.5 miles. The elevation change was about 1000 ft per mile, and it was getting hot. Also, in order to keep the trail from eroding,they had placed wooden beams across the trail. This made it like climbing stairs and switchbacks all the way to the top. All in all, we finally made it in about the same time as we made it down. Three and a half hours. We jumped in the car and drove about 7 hours to Albuquerque where we collapsed into bed. My legs were so stiff from the hike earlier in the day that I could hardly walk. The next day, we woke up, still exhausted and drove twelve hours to Ft. Worth where we will stay until we have a conference from school next week. Whew! It was a long trip, but very worth it, and I can't wait to do it again!